Frost tries to ignore speculation about job as Nebraska coach
Facing mounting pressure with Nebraska on the cusp of a fifth straight losing season, coach Scott Frost acknowledged this year has fallen far short of his expectations.
“I thought this year it would pop,” Frost said Monday at his weekly news conference.
The Cornhuskers are 3-6 overall and in last place in the Big Ten West at 1-5 entering their home game against No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday.
A road loss to Minnesota followed by a home loss to Purdue have ratcheted up fan and media speculation that Frost is on the clock.
His hiring in December 2017 was celebrated. He’s a native of Nebraska, quarterbacked the Huskers to a national championship in 1997 and returned to Lincoln after leading Central Florida to a 13-0 season in 2017.
Frost is 15-26 with the Huskers and hasn’t won more than three Big Ten games in a season. Worse, Nebraska is 6-10 against Big Ten West foes Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern and Purdue and winless against Iowa and Wisconsin.
Nebraska would have to beat Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa to achieve bowl eligibility for the first time in five years.
“We know we’ve got to get the wins. The wins take care of everything,” Frost said. “And despite all the improvement that I’ve seen, that hasn’t improved. We’ve had a tough schedule and played some really good teams and we’ve been so close. Got to get them done.”
New athletic director Trev Alberts, a star defensive player for the Huskers in the early 1990s, has been supportive of Frost in his public comments but noncommittal about the future.
Asked about speculation about his status, Frost said: “You know, I don’t pay any attention to it. It’s kind of hard to ignore. There was an article written about me six games into my first year — we came off undefeated (at UCF) and lost our first six here — and they were already writing stuff.
“You learn as a coach not to pay any attention to that. I owe it to the kids to give them my everything. So do the coaches, and we are, and the kids are giving us everything they’ve got right back because of our relationship with those guys. Everything else doesn’t matter. We can only control what we can control.”
The Huskers were expected to be better this season because most of the defensive starters returned and they have a fourth-year starting quarterback in Adrian Martinez.
The defense is middle of the pack in the Big Ten but has kept the Huskers in a lot of games. But Martinez has had a knack for fumbling, throwing interceptions and making other bad decisions at the worst possible times.
The Huskers are 5-18 in one-score games since 2018, and Frost has said repeatedly he believes the program is about to turn the corner.
“I don’t want to overstep here, but I’m really excited about the rest of this year,” he said. “I’m really excited about next year. I hope we get it. I think we should. With the young guys we’ve got coming back and an opportunity to go out and get a few more pieces to add to that, this thing could be really good.”
Trading places: Purdue needs one win to become bowl eligible. Indiana is on the verge of being eliminated.
It’s a reversal of fortune few anticipated when the season began. The final month begins with both teams facing highly ranked Michigan schools Saturday.
“They know — we don’t have to talk about it a lot,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said Monday. “The captains mentioned it when I met with them, and they understand what’s at stake. It’s just trying to find a way to compete at a high level and play at a high level and win Big Ten football games. So to me that’s the whole goal.”
For the Hoosiers, it has been a brutal first two months. Two of their top running backs entered the transfer portal since August. Starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. struggled even before he injured his throwing shoulder at Penn State. He hasn’t played since early October, though Allen said Monday that Penix has been throwing.
Jack Tuttle, Penix’s replacement, sat out last weekend after injuring his right foot in a 54-7 loss to No. 5 Ohio State and it’s not clear if he’ll return Saturday. Additional injuries challenged the Hoosiers too.
Indiana is 0-5 against teams that have appeared in the top 10 this season, and next up is a trip to No. 9 Michigan, a week after No. 5 Michigan State derailed the Wolverines’ perfect season.
Another Gopher grounded: Minnesota has likely lost another running back to a season-ending injury, with Bryce Williams the latest to be sidelined for the ground-oriented Gophers.
Coach P.J. Fleck announced the news Monday, two months after Mohamed Ibrahim hurt his lower left leg and one month after Trey Potts suffered an undisclosed injury serious enough to keep him hospitalized for six days.
Williams, a fourth-year player with 186 yards and three touchdowns on 37 rushes this season, appeared to hurt his lower left leg during a 19-yard reception in the first quarter at Northwestern.
“It looks like it will be season-ending,” Fleck said. “It’s unfortunate. It’s one of those years that’s kind of got us right now. But it’s the next man in, the next man up. Everybody’s on deck.”
Freshmen Mar’Keise Irving of Hillcrest and Ky Thomas have taken over the workload in the backfield, but they’re the only healthy scholarship running backs on the roster. Linebacker Derik LeCaptain, one of the team’s best special teams players, took some turns Saturday and had a 24-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. The Gophers also have switched another player whom Fleck declined to identify to running back.